1. People with flaky mats
Every mat that isn't from the Manduka Pro series should be BANNED and OUTLAWED as far as I'm concerned (their eKo series is crap; mine flaked after 6 months. So just get the Manduka Pro or Pro-Lite). It is INCONSIDERATE to keep practicing on your flaky mat, so CHUCK IT! Spare a thought for your neighbours (not all of us are Pratyahara Queens and other people's flaky mat bits stuck on your sweaty limbs is just plain GROSS).
2. People with extra-long length mats
If you're gonna get a Manduka Pro, DON'T bring the extra-long length one to Mysore. I was guilty of practicing on one of these while in Sydney. BUT!!!! The difference is... There was space in my Sydney shala. However, there is NO wiggle room in the Mysore shala. This causes great distress to your neighbours in front and behind you as they're trying to be polite by not touching your mat/ invading your space... BUT!!! You leave them no choice but to be rude and plonk their feet on your mat in seated postures.
3. Practising next to the shala door
- The draft.
- All eyes on you of the people queuing to get in.
- The constant traffic of people entering and leaving.
4. Heavy breathers
Enough said.
Like I said, not everyone is a Pratyahara Queen.
I'm running on a few hours' sleep, can you tell? I fall asleep fine, but seem to wake up at 2am most nights then lay in bed till my alarm rings for practice at 5.35am (for 6.30 slot). My time-slot got moved up half-hour earlier from tomorrow onwards. Less sleep beckons.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
-----
Showing posts with label yoga - pratyahara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yoga - pratyahara. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Friday, May 28, 2010
Pratyahara Over Water
Look what I found! The Yoga Slackers were in Amsterdam.
They're basically people who do yoga on a slackline (kinda like a tightrope). Found the video on the original article here.
What a gorgeous shot! That's some serious pratyahara and dharana going on there.
They're basically people who do yoga on a slackline (kinda like a tightrope). Found the video on the original article here.
What a gorgeous shot! That's some serious pratyahara and dharana going on there.
Monday, March 15, 2010
I Went to Bikram™ Yoga
I didn't make it to that Bikram class in the morning, but coz I finished early today, I thought I'd take their evening class. It was cold and raining all afternoon... just the perfect kind of weather to get toasted.
Man, did I get toasted.
The last Bikram class I took was probably oh say... about 2 years ago. The first time I did it, I probably had to stop about 10,000 times coz the heat and humidity were making me so light-headed I felt like I was gonna throw up, then pass out. Tonight, I did a little better and stopped about... oh say, 5,000 times instead? I still felt like I was gonna throw up, then pass out.
A Bikram class is thus a very good lesson in humility. HAHAHA.
I'm not in my top physical state coz my asana sessions have been patchy in the past few weeks (you know this)... and even though his copyrighted 26-pose sequence is a really easy Hatha yoga sequence, that bloody humidity just nails you. I was floored sooooo many times. But I figured stopping every single time I needed to would be much more elegant than keeling over and passing out if I just pushed on.
The first thing that struck me about this place were the 3 HUGE photos on top of the wall. So any time you had to look up for drishti, you got distracted by:
And there was a third picture flanking Bikram's right of a chubby dude... whom I thought was Bishnu Gosh at first (Bikram's teacher), but now that I've googled it, it seems like the picture on his left is actually of Bishnu Gosh. So... sorry folks, all I can say is the chubby dude had long flowing locks, sat in an almost lady-like sideways pose and was the only one who wasn't sitting on a tiger.
So... what do you do when you've already decided you want to go to this yoga class, paid the money for the yoga class and brought all your gear into the studio to set yourself up for said yoga class only to be confronted with such DISTURBING IMAGES?!? ...I guess it's supposed to come across as "fierce" but all I could think of was "What about Ahimsa?" (I mean... HELLO McFLY? Those dudes are sitting on SKINNED TIGERS?!?!???)
I did the only yogic thing I could think of doing in such an ironic situation: PASS NO JUDGMENT.
And then the next thing I thought: Liz would piss herself laughing if I could get a picture of this. HAHAHAHA. Sadly, no cameras in class of course. Thank goodness the internet raked up 2 of those 3 pictures.
Here's where I feel I need to interject with my personal opinion of Bikram. He's not exactly the most "yogic" of teachers... everything from his flashy lifestyle (100 Bentleys. Or is that Rolls Royces. OK, I'm hyping up the figure too, but you get the idea.), to his use of language ("Because I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me.") SERIOUSLY. ...to his copyrighting of his asana sequence and suing any unlicensed studio for using the name Bikram™... Yeah, it's all kind of vulgar and un-yogic.
BUT... is it? On the other hand, kudos to him for telling it like it is. He is honest and unapologetic for who he is, what he does and how he lives. I mean, who said yoga teachers were GOD, right? (By "GOD", I mean: Perfect.)
Crazy as anyone is for practicing yoga in what is pretty much a steam room-sauna, there is some benefit to it. I like to call it "gateway yoga". I know lots of people who've come to know yoga precisely coz of a hot yoga class, and from there delve into other aspects of it. So I'm not gonna knock this style of yoga coz god forbid people get into a "My guru is better than your guru" debate. Which would be completely WRONG and beside the point (Thanks Marinus, for that quote. I will forever remember it was you who reminded me of this!).
And the fact is, it is nice to finally be in a warm room in the dead of winter and be able to feel your muscles expand and open up, just like they should. (OK, maybe 40 degrees Celsius is kinda pushing the warm-factor, but hey... I'll take what I can get).
Oh, and the teacher-chatter I was so afraid of? ...It helped that the class was half in Dutch, half in English. HAHAHA. Each pose is repeated twice during the 1.5hr class, so the first round of asanas were taught in Dutch, and the second round were explained in English. This worked very well for me coz I didn't understand half the chatter that was going on, anyway! It was like having BBC World radio on in the background when the foreign correspondent is blabbering on. You just kinda zone out. And coz I was watching what other people were doing to figure out which pose came next, I was glad for his English translation by the time he got to it.
Impressions of Bikram as a form of yoga, after coming back to it 2 years later? (and after practicing Ashtanga Mysore style monogamously during this period). They're such different forms of yoga, like on opposite ends of the scale... the most obvious is the decibel-level of course. There's barely a sound made except for Ujjayi breathing in a Mysore class... this, versus the Bikram script.
The other thing that really struck me was how externalized a Bikram class is. I never noticed this before, only this time round. I mean... you're staring into a mirror in front of you, watching to pull this up, push that down. As opposed to internalizing the process in a Mysore environment - feeling where in the body you ought to be working. Also, with Mysore it's so internalized that everyone's doing their own thing, at their own pace... no one really cares where in the series you're at.
With Bikram, because everyone's looking into the same mirror, it also felt like there's a bit of competition going on (he's bending more than I am, she's getting her leg higher in Nataraja, etc.) I caught myself comparing at times, only because you're all staring into the same bloody mirror so it's right there in front of you! (OK, here's where you say "Then engage Pratyahara to the max!") I can so totally understand why he of all people is pushing for yoga competitions and for it to be part of the Olympics (Sorry folks, this is where I draw the line. Yoga is NOT competition). I don't agree with it, but now I understand a bit better WHY he's all for competition. The use of mirrors in class encourages this.
And finally, while I got to crack my back open in that delicious heat and with all those lovely backbends, I have to say that only practising those 26-postures is extremely limiting (if this the only asana practice one does). No arm-strengtheners! Not much core-building! Listen to me, I'm such an Ashtangi!
Dammit, at least with Ashtanga there's a progression to the practice... you keep adding on more poses that will help you strengthen/ open this-and-that part. So even within the "fixed" series, you're still adding on and growing stronger and more flexible. There's a progression. I'm not sure how this would work within Bikram's series... but I'm also unsure if there are "advanced variations" to the poses. Any Bikramites care to share? I mean - I'd think you'd hit a plateau at some point, no? Or am I missing something?
I'm glad I went. I was craving heat, but by the end of it my head was bursting with "WHAT WAS I THINKING?" as I stopped for the 5,000th time before I threw up or passed out... It would probably be a while before my next Bikram class, I think I've had my fill for a while. It's just nice to shake things up a bit, once in a New Moon. (Haha, bad Ashtanga moon day joke) (Which is today, by the way. Which is why I went for the Bikram class in the first place. The joke is so bad I had to explain it in such detail).
Those 3 photos are still burned into my memory. Arghhh!
Man, did I get toasted.
The last Bikram class I took was probably oh say... about 2 years ago. The first time I did it, I probably had to stop about 10,000 times coz the heat and humidity were making me so light-headed I felt like I was gonna throw up, then pass out. Tonight, I did a little better and stopped about... oh say, 5,000 times instead? I still felt like I was gonna throw up, then pass out.
A Bikram class is thus a very good lesson in humility. HAHAHA.
I'm not in my top physical state coz my asana sessions have been patchy in the past few weeks (you know this)... and even though his copyrighted 26-pose sequence is a really easy Hatha yoga sequence, that bloody humidity just nails you. I was floored sooooo many times. But I figured stopping every single time I needed to would be much more elegant than keeling over and passing out if I just pushed on.
The first thing that struck me about this place were the 3 HUGE photos on top of the wall. So any time you had to look up for drishti, you got distracted by:
And there was a third picture flanking Bikram's right of a chubby dude... whom I thought was Bishnu Gosh at first (Bikram's teacher), but now that I've googled it, it seems like the picture on his left is actually of Bishnu Gosh. So... sorry folks, all I can say is the chubby dude had long flowing locks, sat in an almost lady-like sideways pose and was the only one who wasn't sitting on a tiger.
So... what do you do when you've already decided you want to go to this yoga class, paid the money for the yoga class and brought all your gear into the studio to set yourself up for said yoga class only to be confronted with such DISTURBING IMAGES?!? ...I guess it's supposed to come across as "fierce" but all I could think of was "What about Ahimsa?" (I mean... HELLO McFLY? Those dudes are sitting on SKINNED TIGERS?!?!???)
I did the only yogic thing I could think of doing in such an ironic situation: PASS NO JUDGMENT.
And then the next thing I thought: Liz would piss herself laughing if I could get a picture of this. HAHAHAHA. Sadly, no cameras in class of course. Thank goodness the internet raked up 2 of those 3 pictures.
Here's where I feel I need to interject with my personal opinion of Bikram. He's not exactly the most "yogic" of teachers... everything from his flashy lifestyle (100 Bentleys. Or is that Rolls Royces. OK, I'm hyping up the figure too, but you get the idea.), to his use of language ("Because I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me.") SERIOUSLY. ...to his copyrighting of his asana sequence and suing any unlicensed studio for using the name Bikram™... Yeah, it's all kind of vulgar and un-yogic.
BUT... is it? On the other hand, kudos to him for telling it like it is. He is honest and unapologetic for who he is, what he does and how he lives. I mean, who said yoga teachers were GOD, right? (By "GOD", I mean: Perfect.)
Crazy as anyone is for practicing yoga in what is pretty much a steam room-sauna, there is some benefit to it. I like to call it "gateway yoga". I know lots of people who've come to know yoga precisely coz of a hot yoga class, and from there delve into other aspects of it. So I'm not gonna knock this style of yoga coz god forbid people get into a "My guru is better than your guru" debate. Which would be completely WRONG and beside the point (Thanks Marinus, for that quote. I will forever remember it was you who reminded me of this!).
And the fact is, it is nice to finally be in a warm room in the dead of winter and be able to feel your muscles expand and open up, just like they should. (OK, maybe 40 degrees Celsius is kinda pushing the warm-factor, but hey... I'll take what I can get).
Oh, and the teacher-chatter I was so afraid of? ...It helped that the class was half in Dutch, half in English. HAHAHA. Each pose is repeated twice during the 1.5hr class, so the first round of asanas were taught in Dutch, and the second round were explained in English. This worked very well for me coz I didn't understand half the chatter that was going on, anyway! It was like having BBC World radio on in the background when the foreign correspondent is blabbering on. You just kinda zone out. And coz I was watching what other people were doing to figure out which pose came next, I was glad for his English translation by the time he got to it.
Impressions of Bikram as a form of yoga, after coming back to it 2 years later? (and after practicing Ashtanga Mysore style monogamously during this period). They're such different forms of yoga, like on opposite ends of the scale... the most obvious is the decibel-level of course. There's barely a sound made except for Ujjayi breathing in a Mysore class... this, versus the Bikram script.
The other thing that really struck me was how externalized a Bikram class is. I never noticed this before, only this time round. I mean... you're staring into a mirror in front of you, watching to pull this up, push that down. As opposed to internalizing the process in a Mysore environment - feeling where in the body you ought to be working. Also, with Mysore it's so internalized that everyone's doing their own thing, at their own pace... no one really cares where in the series you're at.
With Bikram, because everyone's looking into the same mirror, it also felt like there's a bit of competition going on (he's bending more than I am, she's getting her leg higher in Nataraja, etc.) I caught myself comparing at times, only because you're all staring into the same bloody mirror so it's right there in front of you! (OK, here's where you say "Then engage Pratyahara to the max!") I can so totally understand why he of all people is pushing for yoga competitions and for it to be part of the Olympics (Sorry folks, this is where I draw the line. Yoga is NOT competition). I don't agree with it, but now I understand a bit better WHY he's all for competition. The use of mirrors in class encourages this.
And finally, while I got to crack my back open in that delicious heat and with all those lovely backbends, I have to say that only practising those 26-postures is extremely limiting (if this the only asana practice one does). No arm-strengtheners! Not much core-building! Listen to me, I'm such an Ashtangi!
Dammit, at least with Ashtanga there's a progression to the practice... you keep adding on more poses that will help you strengthen/ open this-and-that part. So even within the "fixed" series, you're still adding on and growing stronger and more flexible. There's a progression. I'm not sure how this would work within Bikram's series... but I'm also unsure if there are "advanced variations" to the poses. Any Bikramites care to share? I mean - I'd think you'd hit a plateau at some point, no? Or am I missing something?
I'm glad I went. I was craving heat, but by the end of it my head was bursting with "WHAT WAS I THINKING?" as I stopped for the 5,000th time before I threw up or passed out... It would probably be a while before my next Bikram class, I think I've had my fill for a while. It's just nice to shake things up a bit, once in a New Moon. (Haha, bad Ashtanga moon day joke) (Which is today, by the way. Which is why I went for the Bikram class in the first place. The joke is so bad I had to explain it in such detail).
Those 3 photos are still burned into my memory. Arghhh!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sharath in Sydney: Week 1, Day 4
"You physically strong. But the mind is weak."
So says Rangaswamyji aka Sharath at the end of Uthpluthi today.
He counted "One", and paused for about 5 counts before people started giggling in anticipation of the "Two" that didn't come. He probably held for another 5 counts before he decided to go into "Two".
Funny thing is, I've been starting to feel the same way about my practice in the past couple of days. And it hit home when I heard him say it this morning. (I mean this in the most positive way, even though what he said sounds kinda hardcore.)
Today was a decidedly inward-focussed practice. Maybe I'm tired. Maybe the excitement about being there, having everything fresh, shiny & new is wearing off already, and I'm really starting to get focussed on my practice groove.
I could've sworn I was closing my eyes quite a bit today - in most of the seated forward bends especially, but I think maybe my eyes were open (Hello drishti!), but my mind was in the zone. (I was going to say "my mind was somewhere else". But it was definitely there, yet it wasn't. I'm finding it hard to articulate this now, I hope you get what I'm saying).
Today's headstand was decidedly stronger. Held for 6 of his counts, came down, then went back up again for another of 2 of his counts. OK, seeing how I came down at his 4th count yesterday, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Besides, this was the first time in a loooooong time that my biceps were burning in headstand towards the end, so OK, slowly but surely I'm going somewhere. Who knows, tomorrow I might not even be able to get up! (a guy from my shala holds sirsasana for 108 long & slow breaths. Geepers! ...that's something to inspire you!)
A short report today, but it was a good practice for me at least. :)
His conference is on this evening, so I'll hopefully take some notes to post here some time after tomorrow's practice. (Yes folks, Saturday will not be our rest day. Monday will be our rest day.) (Pedantic traditionalists, take note! Heh.)
Here's a bizarre ad I spotted on the walk to the workshop this morning to make you laugh. I'd be afraid to go there if I were a bear, and likewise if I were a man (or woman). I'd love to see the other (bad) ads their ad agency have come up with for other clients!
So says Rangaswamyji aka Sharath at the end of Uthpluthi today.
He counted "One", and paused for about 5 counts before people started giggling in anticipation of the "Two" that didn't come. He probably held for another 5 counts before he decided to go into "Two".
Funny thing is, I've been starting to feel the same way about my practice in the past couple of days. And it hit home when I heard him say it this morning. (I mean this in the most positive way, even though what he said sounds kinda hardcore.)
Today was a decidedly inward-focussed practice. Maybe I'm tired. Maybe the excitement about being there, having everything fresh, shiny & new is wearing off already, and I'm really starting to get focussed on my practice groove.
I could've sworn I was closing my eyes quite a bit today - in most of the seated forward bends especially, but I think maybe my eyes were open (Hello drishti!), but my mind was in the zone. (I was going to say "my mind was somewhere else". But it was definitely there, yet it wasn't. I'm finding it hard to articulate this now, I hope you get what I'm saying).
Today's headstand was decidedly stronger. Held for 6 of his counts, came down, then went back up again for another of 2 of his counts. OK, seeing how I came down at his 4th count yesterday, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Besides, this was the first time in a loooooong time that my biceps were burning in headstand towards the end, so OK, slowly but surely I'm going somewhere. Who knows, tomorrow I might not even be able to get up! (a guy from my shala holds sirsasana for 108 long & slow breaths. Geepers! ...that's something to inspire you!)
A short report today, but it was a good practice for me at least. :)
His conference is on this evening, so I'll hopefully take some notes to post here some time after tomorrow's practice. (Yes folks, Saturday will not be our rest day. Monday will be our rest day.) (Pedantic traditionalists, take note! Heh.)
Here's a bizarre ad I spotted on the walk to the workshop this morning to make you laugh. I'd be afraid to go there if I were a bear, and likewise if I were a man (or woman). I'd love to see the other (bad) ads their ad agency have come up with for other clients!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
